Posted on 04/26/2007 12:57:46 PM PDT by blam
Agriculture Commissioner bans Chinese catfish in Alabama
4/25/2007, 5:34 p.m. CDT
By KATE BRUMBACK
The Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks announced a ban on the sale of catfish from China on Wednesday after antibiotics prohibited in the United States were found in Chinese catfish.
Sparks said 20 samples of catfish from China were collected for testing by the department of agriculture over the last few weeks. Of those samples, 14 tested positive for the antibiotic fluoroquinolones, which the Food and Drug Administration banned from use in food-producing animals in 1997.
"We are sending notice today that we are not going to continue to sit by and let these foreign countries produce their food at a different standard than we ask our farmers to produce by and then send those products in here at a cheaper price," Sparks said.
Agriculture department chemists also tested 13 samples of basa fish from Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, with five of the samples testing positive for antibiotics. Sparks said additional testing is required before a decision is made to ban basa fish.
The samples that tested positive represent about 214,260 pounds of fish that will not be sold. About 300,000 pounds of fish also have been suspended pending further analysis.
Lance Hester, the state's food safety director, said the exposure of fish to the banned antibiotics is not accidental. He said the antibiotics are used to kill bacteria in the water.
Sparks said he will not lift the ban on Chinese catfish until he is convinced the problem is solved — until there is no evidence the forbidden antibiotics are used.
"It's pretty obvious they haven't heard my message from Alabama," he said. "But some way or other we're going to get this message from Alabama to those foreign countries that if you continue to use chemicals that have been banned by the FDA, when we find it, we're going to stop it. It's that simple."
Sparks said he has already been in touch with people in the fish industry in the state who have purchased contaminated fish. He said the department of agriculture will continue to help them test fish.
"We applaud Ron Sparks for taking this step — and it's not an easy step — to protect the health and welfare of the state and the citizens of Alabama," said Butch Wilson, chairman of the Alabama Catfish Producers.
Sparks said he also communicates regularly with agricultural commissioners in other southern states, such as Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia, which produce catfish, and he expects they "will be reacting and responding accordingly to their state and their state laws."
The extensive testing is expensive, but Joe Basile, a chemist at the department of agriculture's lab in Montgomery, said the FDA has been involved and is bearing much of the cost.
Off to the hog farms with them!...........
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Send them back to China and we can get some more of those nice wall plaques made from them.
There's no shortage, there's just too much cost. It's a sad day when we here on the Gulf can't afford seafood caught here. Next time you're in the store, take a look at the prices. I've bought foreign fish in the past, simply cause the stuff caught right here is almost twice the price, but now I'll just do without all of it.
The Singing Trout/Bass?...........
Alabama bans six brands of seafood from China
Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bishop announced a statewide ban June 25 on the sale of six brands of shrimp and crawfish from China after seafood samples taken from Alabama grocery store shelves and seafood suppliers tested positive for a restricted antibiotic.
The shrimp and crawfish were found to contain traces of chloramphenicol, an antibiotic that triggers the rare blood disorder aplastic anemia and is linked to a form of leukemia. The federal government prohibits chloramphenicol in food-producing animals and animal feed products in the United States.
The news was cheered by many shrimpers in south Alabama, who this year have faced high fuel prices and record-low shrimp prices, which they blame on imported competition.
Alabama's ban comes a month after a similar ban by Louisiana. The European Union has banned all imports of crawfish and shrimp from China after detecting chloramphenicol. Alabama's ban does not apply to brands of Chinese seafood that have not tested positive for the antibiotic.
Bishop said the ban applies to Sea Best Raw Salad Shrimp, Sea Best IQF Raw Salad Shrimp Frozen, IQF Frozen Raw Salad Shrimp Sea Best, Sea Best Frozen Whole Boiled Crawfish, Sea Best Whole Boiled Crawfish, and Bernard's Cleaned Peeled Crawfish Tails with Fat.
Bishop said his staff began contacting grocery chains, restaurant suppliers, and cold storage warehouses on June 24, telling them not to sell any more of the banned brands from China until the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can do its own tests to verify Alabama's results. If those tests are positive, the banned seafood will have to be destroyed, he said.
Is he eligible to run for president? (By the way is he a democrat or a republican?)
I tell you food safety is becoming my biggest concern—right there with illegal immigration and terrorism.
I don’t know, but he is working with Governor (R)Bob Riley. Riley has done a GREAT job.
Democrat
The extensive testing is expensive, but Joe Basile, a chemist at the department of agriculture's lab in Montgomery, said the FDA has been involved and is bearing much of the cost.
And, uh, where does the FDA get its money?
And why does it cost so much for domestic catfish? Or any domestic product for that matter? Can we come up with a list?
I’ll start: Land taxes are too high.
Hmmmm—oh well, I still have to give credit where credit is due.
Are there any republicans that are speaking out on this issue? This whole issue should be big news.
Ban all food imports from Communist Red China.
I’ve bought Bernard’s crawfish many times in Louisiana. It’s kind of misleading with a name like Bernard’s don’t you think? You don’t think of it as being chinese.
I’ll add that fuel is too high as well.
“Off to the hog farms with them!..........”
LOL!
The China Card was / is a Trojan Horse.
Not only that—many of their ceramic products (like dishes) are made with lead.
I have called my Senator numerous times, John Ensign, getting ready to call again and he is a veterinarian , can you believe this.
Calling him now, to call for Reid to resign.
What a bunch of wimp asses we have in there.
Repuppies.................
A veterinarian and he kept quiet over all this? What is his problem?
Good work Mr Sparks.
As disgraceful as it is for the Chinese to not care about this stuff, it’s a lot worse that farmers here took the rejected food and passed it on to some other animals to eat. American companies seem to not care either.
I truly hope that all the coverage on this will begin to raise the awareness of the public to the fact that we should NOT be importing foodstuffs that we could easily produce here. This might be a turning point in a lot of ways.
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